A very costly try: Collins Injera reveals whether he paid for ‘damaging’ Ksh 10 million camera

Photo Credit: World Rugby

A very costly try: Collins Injera reveals whether he paid for ‘damaging’ Ksh 10 million camera

Mark Kinyanjui 14:30 - 08.07.2023

Injera reportedly "damaged" the camera after signing his name on the lens after he had scored his 200th career try at the HSBC World Series

Former Kenya sevens legend Collins Injera has recreated his infamous camera signing incidence during the 2014/2015 World Rugby Series in London.

Having waited an agonizingly long time to finally post his 200th international sevens try, the winger was relieved to touch down at the London finale of the 2014-15 World Series.

Injera then took a permanent marker out of his sock and decided to sign the ball he had just carried over for the score. 

But he wasn't done there. 

Injera then decided to copy a move often performed by tennis players, unaware of one significant difference. 

It is a practice seen in tennis but little did Injera know, the players sign a protective cover instead of the lens itself. The lens - now permanently marked with Injera's autograph - costs in the region of £60,000 (Ksh 10

The incidence left the cameraman ‘far from impressed’, according to World Rugby

The video remains the second most watched Kenyan rugby-related video with over 393,000 views

Quizzed about whether he paid for the “damages” in an interview with SemaBox TV, Injera was quick to say that it was all exaggerated and that he did not actually damage the camera.

“I can’t say I damaged it. It was all just procopanda (propaganda) as they say in Kenya,” Injera cheekily said, “ I was worried at first because after signing in, I just kept on playing the game,” he added.

“As I was walking into the showers, one of my teammates came to me and asked me if I had checked my social media. So I checked my phone and I was tagged everywhere by the likes of ESPN saying that I had damaged a camera worth I do not know how many million pounds.

“So I started panicking.  My monthly salary had not even been paid. I was wondering how I would pay for it. I had to go to the pitchside after the game, but the camera was still there. It kept showing the same angle. 

“The game afterwards continued (being broadcasted) using that camera as one of the angles, and that is when I realized it was just propaganda. Guys just hyped it because it had never been done before despite the fact I did it on the lens of the camera.

“I was meant to understand that tennis guys have a shield they use to sign the camera, but I did it on the lens!”

The towering 36-year-old is second to Britain's Dan Norton in the rugby sevens World Series try-scoring charts with 271 touchdowns.He retired in January this year.

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